I have a 1.3 acre property near trails. so to save $...can I turn a two car garage into a barn? It is attached to the house, has a concrete floor and electricity. If the garage door was kept up (open) and 2 portable stalls inserted with rubber floor mats, would it work? opinions, please? thanks, all!

I'd remove the garage door entirely and replace it with a fixed wall with a window (unglazed, with shutters), and a wide single or double sliding door. The main reason for removing the current door is to eliminate the overhead obstacles - if a horse in the garage reared up and smacked one of the glass panes in the garage door, it would be a mess. Even if there is no glass in the door, they are still terribly low for horses.

Other than that, you'll want to put up a kickwall from the floor up wherever the horses can get to the wall. 1" plywood for the lower 4' of wall would probably be sufficient for most of the garage, as long as your prefab stalls have 4 walls of thier own. If you have to use existing garage walls for stalls, I'd cover them with 2" dimenstion lumber to about 7' up.

Also, if there are any glazed windows in your garage, they will need steel grills, or curious horses are likely to poke thier noses through the glass. If you have a regular outside door in the garage, you might consider enlarging it to 40" wide and making it a dutch door for additional ventillation.

thanks- great tip about removing garage door re head safety. the garage door is old-would probably trash it and if I wanted to convert it back to a garage later would buy a new one. thinking of putting PVC type portable corral stalls in with rubber mats, and open space where garagee door was will be ventilation, plus electric fans.

Sunny Fl...can be a mess with all the NEW rules and regulations. PLEASE check with zoning before you do anything. If the inspectors find thier way to your porperty. THEY will require you to remove, and of course give you a zoning regulation ciatiation. It can get very costly when dealing with the county zoning department.

Do your horses Need a barn/stalls. My guys are very happy with a few run ins on the property, keeps them dry and cooler.

I may rethint things and build a shed over outdoor stalls re above post. am sure some nosy neighbor would alert a building inspector re garage, like the idea of using a back wall of it. ifit was a detached garage it would be different and simpler! the reason I thought of it is in a hurricane I could close the garage door and the horses would be safe.

I need to measure the ceiling. the house and garage are wood frame (cedar wood) so I might be able to take drywall off ceiling and the wood frame above it much higher (peaked roof not flat If front garage door is permanently left open and fans installed would not ventilation equal a barn?

Get a couple of the steel stock-panel type corals with shelters for everyday use and set up your garage as an equine hurricane shelter.

Then you'd just need to put plywood over the drywall (I'd double it for the first 4 feet from the floor) and install grills for the windows. I'd probably put in attachments for some sort of stalls, or stock panels to create two spaces. Include a big water tank. Don't worry about mats, just bed their area deep for the duration of the storm (it'd be more sanitary that way anyway)

Another idea might be to put in a pair of standing stalls in the garage for hurricane use - then you'd still have the garage for the cars and such, and safe spaces for your horses.

Your lucky. Where I am you have to have five acres for the first horse and an additional acre per animal.

Dang, that is harsh. Here in VA, you only need more than one acre to keep livestock in an area zoned residential/agricultural. No limit on how many animals, either - you could pack em in standing room only if you wanted too, as long as they were demonstably healthy and happy.